Retailers devote considerable resources to shaping a customer's experience within a retail store to make shopping easier, more comfortable, and attractive. Of paramount concern to retailers is facilitating a customer's selection, transportation, and purchasing of goods within those stores. Accordingly, upon entering virtually any retail store, a customer is greeted by a fleet of shopping carts from which the customer selects a cart before embarking on their journey through the store.
One significant development among retailers is the advent of the superstore, in which customers can now shop for a complete selection of groceries, as well as a larger stock of general merchandise. As customers spend increasingly longer times in superstores, retailers are mindful of making the shopping experience appealing to children to encourage their parents to spend more time in the store. Some retailers have offered specialized children's carts including add-on portions for seating children. However, these conventional children's carts significantly increase the length of the cart, without increasing the storage capacity of the cart, and also make these carts more difficult for store personnel to collect and store.
With the greater volume of items purchased in superstores, as well as the move to purchasing items in bulk quantities, conventional carts or conventional children's carts frequently lack capacity to handle the bulk of items purchased or larger sized items.
Given their high profile in the retail environment and their impact on the experience of the consumer, shopping carts should better serve to meet the needs and wants of consumers.